Sons of Angron
The Sons of Angron are a fleet-based warband of World Eaters origin. Its date of founding is unknown, however its forces was first encountered in the early years of the Indomitus Crusade under the command of the Khornate Champion named Karak the Ripper. It is currently classified as Activius in Extremis by the Ordo Hereticus. Origins & Organisation of the Warband First Encounters The first known Imperial encounter with the Sons of Angron occurred in 076.M42 at the Battle of Casio's Redoubt in the Goliath system, the confrontation being named for the star fort upon which the fighting occurred. Initial waves of Astra Militarum boarding parties were set upon and butchered by raving gangs of Heretic Astartes and hordes of insane slave-cultists that seemed indifferent to the massed volleys of Imperial weapons fire. It took a concentrated effort by the boarding experts of the Void Tridents Primaris Space Marine Chapter to push these Bezerkers and their slave hordes from the star fort's labyrinthine structure. Although initially believed operationally destroyed at the Battle of Casio's Redoubt, the Sons of Angron have since been sighted in over three dozen conflict zones across the Obscurus and Ultima segmenti. Current analyses put the strength of the warband at around a thousand Heretic Astartes; however, estimating the number of slave-cultists enthralled to the warband is virtually impossible due to their nature as a shifting, unregimented horde. Karak the Ripper Whilst various Aspiring Champions have been identified within the sub-hordes of the Sons of Angron, the overall leader of the warband appears to be a Heretic Astartes by the title of Karak the Ripper. Investigations into the sequestered archives of the Traitor Legions have led several in the Ordo Hereticus to believe that Karak the Ripper is the former World Eaters Captain Karak Ignatius, formerly in command of the 26th Assault Company of the 15th Echelon at the opening of the Horus Heresy. Already known by that time as a brutal warrior who openly embraced the rage-amplifying surgery of the Butcher's Nails, the once-Captain of the World Eaters Legion appears now to be a fully-possessed instrument of Khornate wrath. Although he has been declared dead several times during the first century of M42, Karak the Ripper continues to be sighted on numerous battlefields at the head of rampaging Bezerker hordes and rage-filled slave-cultists. Such feats of resilience and relocation between vastly distant battlefields have led to interest from the Ordo Malleus, who suspect such abilities to be evidence of daemonic ascension. Warband Structure Assessing the organizational complexity of the Sons of Angron is a task fraught with difficulty due to the shifting and disorganized tactics of the warband's bezerker hordes. These hindrances to study are further complicated by the apparent lack of unit heraldry witnessed upon the battle armour of its members. Nonetheless, Imperial analysts have identified a crude structure of sub-groupings within the Sons of Angron that are loosely comparable to company and squad units. Below the brutal supreme command of the warband leader appears to be a group of lower commanders that control groupings of squads as smaller, semi-independent warbands of their own. Pledged to these lesser warlords are the strongmen and demagogues who command individual squads of varying sizes dependent upon that commander's personal charisma and abilities on the battlefield. Subservient to these squad units are the shifting masses of slave-cultists that follow the Sons of Angron from battle to battle and are unleashed as cannon fodder to the Imperial gun lines. Promotion appears to be based entirely on physical strength and combat prowess, with unit commanders at all levels able to attempt elevation by dueling their superiors and usurping them if capable of killing them. As expected from the warband's originating legion and its tactical preferences, the Sons of Angron are dominated by assault-focused line infantry units, the majority of which have embraced the Bezerker rage of Khorne. The vehicle pool of the warband appears to be dominated by transport craft and warbikes and is focused on getting Heretic Astartes into close combat as soon as possible. The warband appears to operate a large number of Helbrutes, each of which is specialized in a line-breaking close-combat role. Analysts have speculated upon whether internment in a Helbrute is regarded as an honour or a punishment within the warband, but due to the understandable lack of first-hand witnesses to their rituals of internment the question cannot be answered beyond mere hyperbole. Also attached to the warband is a cadre of heretek priests of the Dark Mechanicum. These devotees to the twisted forms of warp-tainted engineering are responsible for maintaining the Sons of Angron vehicle fleet, repairing armour & weaponry, and tending to the requirements of the rage-insane Helbrutes under the warband's command. They appear to operate within a parallel command structure to the company-level warlords, owing their allegiance directly to the warband leader rather than the lesser commanders. The heretic Forge World represented by this cadre, along with the exact nature of this pledged allegiance, remains unknown.